Better take another good look. These guys
might want to argue the point. As you can see by
these photos, fishn seems to go on forever with some
folks. I know I still like to wet a worm now and
then.These photos were contributed by Joe Garrison
of Seafish
Charter Services in Sitka, Alaska. Good
thing Joe is a good photographer and is taking the
pictures of the folks as they bring in their fish.
Looks like nice salmon, too.

Joe tells us that the excitement level is
very high with these young old-timers. He says some
of them are not really fisherman in the sense of the
word which we are accustomed to but they get their
fish and sometimes you can hear some whoopn' and
hollern'. Heck, if I caught fish like that, I'd be
whoopn' and hollern', too!

The one little 'ol lady helping her
Granddaughter hold up the fish is 87 years young.
Now, that's a regular trooper, getting into the boat
and out onto the water which is not always nice and
smooth and then hanging in there and getting her
fish - that's dedication to the job at hand and is
good enough performance to be listed as a true
fisherman, anywhere.

April on the Detroit River and it appears to
be cooler than Sitka Alaska. But you have to go when
the walleyes are biting so you just get the duds on
and maybe some gloves, too, and get out on the water
and try not to stir up too much wind. But then, of
course, you have to get there first so if you can
bundle up warm and arrive at the good spots in good
shape, you'll catch your fish.

The boys from Detroit seem to do pretty well with
their walleyes but I'll bet they have a nice hot
coffee mug that'll help warm their hands up and some
brandy to help them stay in the boat.

The guys in the big boat seem to be getting
pretty close. Must be kind of curious of the fishin
action the boys got going. ANYWAY .....

Now that's fishn! And the fish taste much
better from the cold Anybody seen any lake perch?

Now here is something a little different. We
have this fellow, Jim Dowell, from Cottonwood, CA
who reports that he does not do much fishn but that
does not mean he does not like being around fish.

He has as one of his hobbies, fish raising.
He has several different kinds of fish besides the
Koi Carp shown here. They are certainly colorful. I
visited the Botanical Gardens in Des Moines, Ia a
few years back and its quite a place and they have
the Koi Carp there.

Ever wonder why they are called "KING"
Salmon? Well here's one good reason!

This is a fiberglass representation of the
alltime big salmon taken in the Petersburg, Alaska
region. Its reported the salmon was taken in a fish
trap somewhere in the area there and it weighed
right at 126 lbs.

Now that is a big fish, salmon or no. Most
salmon I've seen were about 5-10 lbs but then I only
went fishing the one time while in the Army at Ft
Richardson. Interesting, some of the salmon I had
caught I had cleaned and was taking back to
Anchorage to give to my aunt and would you believe,
that when we left Seward that I forgot the fish and
when my buddy went down there the following week he
was going to bring them back but they were gone from
the freezer, so I had nothing to show for my trip
and my aunt didn't get salmon.

The salmon that we took on that trip were
generally just under 10 lbs. Nice fish and I broke
my line 2-3 times the first time out so the next
day, I got a little heavier rigged line and didn't
lose any after that. And one day it was a little
windy so we couldn't go out and we fished from the
pier in the area there. We caught mostly cod and one
flounder, several different kinds of fish, can't
remember what all but we didn't keep any of them.

Look at this little guy's nice bass that was
caught in first trips out of Sitka this year for Joe
Garrison and his Grandson, Ray, who not too long
before attained the ripe old age of 5 years. That's
a pretty hefty fishn tool that he's holding up there
and the fish must not be very light and between the
tool and the fish, it must be pretty heavy for the
little fisherman but he handles it ok as you can
see. Then, in the picture on the right, Ray has a
couple of nice silvers. What an experience for a
young man who, I don't believe has even started
school yet.

Ray had some fish from a previous trip also,
but I think he might have had a little help on
these, of course, don't want the little guy pulled
overboard, now. Here is a Cod and a King Salmon
caught by Ray. What a fisherman .............

Joe seems to have been able to pass his
abundant fishn and shootn skills to his grandson as
these pages do attest.

Since we had the terrible assualt on the
Trade Center in New York City, there have been
security concerns throughout the USA and they have
impacted no less than ......... our fishing holes
here at home in Iowa.

Yes, sir. In the space of one
morning, our best fishing hole was closed off and
"No Trespassing" signs were put up. There is no
hiking, fishing, hunting, strolling through the
timbered area since the closing of the outlet to
prevent poisoning of the water.

The lake proper can still be accessed but not
the areas at the dam/outlet. A highway goes across
the dam, of course, but it has been prepared with
gates also, and it can quickly be closed off.

So it appears we will become lake fishermen
whether we want to or not. I know I certainly
enjoyed and preferred the high water and its
roiling, fast current as it was going through the
"rip-rap" along the banks of the outlet. The walleye
sure liked to collect there also along with some
other of the fish family.

There were some times when catches were low
due to low water but in the main, and especially
during the spring months, nice catches could be had
by the average fisherman. Good eating fish, too.

As you can see by the above photo, the lake
is presently at planned levels or just slightly
lower. Generally, the lake is low in the fall of the
year and high in the spring from snow melt and the
"spring" rains we generally get around here.Well, lets pray everybody will get all of
their problems resolved and we can get back to
fishing.Addendum to story ......Well, they have got things settled down
finally, not back to where they was - they'll never
get there again, but they are back to half-way
normal now and at least you can access everything
and
fish.
EC 6-14-02

Well, why not just let Joe tell this one
himself, he's right here .......

"OK, well, today wasn't too bad. I caught 2
kings and one silver. The adventure of the day is
when this hump-back whale thought it would be fun to
play with the boat.

He came over and started swimming around the
boat then he would dive under the boat coming up 5
or 6 feet beside us and blow. He could squirt water
in the air 20ft . Then it was back around and under
again and then up so close I could just about touch
him with my hand. Its OK to be close to a whale but
that's just a little too close. The wind was doing
about 20MPH. And he would swim down wind and just
lay there on top of the water.

Now this guy is about 40ft long and I was just
running the 15 HPR motor and with the wind at
our back I didn't think I could turn around him. I
put the motor in reverse but wind was still pushing
the boat. I said to Bob 'here we go we are
going to hit that sob.' Then he just slid under the
water and we went right over him. We were glad when
he finally found some thing else to do." Joe Garrison, Seafish
Charter
Services .